JJ's Basketball Clinic

JJ just finished up his basketball clinic. 4 days of 3 and 4 year olds learning the ropes of basketball...in hopes of being able to "play" a real game come January! The group - 12 kids in all, had 3 great coaches and all seemed like they had a great time. JJ absolutely loved it since one of his best buds from preschool, Bradley was in the clinic with him. Not to be one to brag about my kids too much, but I do have to say that JJ definately made the most baskets out of all the kids! I'm excited to watch them play their games. I'm thinking that he will have several of his preschool classmates on his team, so it will be super fun for him...and us!
At his last practice, he kept giving me the thumbs up - something he has just mastered, and he would run down the court dribbling and then turn and thumbs up me, lose his ball and then have to chase after it. Once, he had to get my attention by calling "Amara.....!!!!!" to show me! Another time, he left his free shooting time just to come over and give me a hug and say "I love you".

Food

Food....I love it!

Really, I do love it - everything about it - making menus, grocery lists, grocery shopping, food porn, food blogs, baking, cooking, mixing, all of it!

Oh yeah, especially eating it! Yes, I love to eat! And I'm really not that picky either. Sure, I love to have a fabulous dinner, or a real nice breakfast, or a superb sandwich for lunch, but sometimes I can just go basic. Take this for example...for the last two nights, and I'm sure a few nights last week, I have poured myself a bowl....okay, large bowl of corn flakes with soy milk. The Kirkland Organic plain soy milk...love it! I really have never eaten corn flakes much in my life, but recently I just have had this craving for them. Corn flakes with honey and milk was my Dad's breakfast of choice while I was growing up, so maybe it's a bit nostalgic for me. Who knows...

Anyhow...I am on this huge baking craze right now. Made cinnamon rolls and banana bread lately, with plans to make donut muffins, more banana bread, pretzels, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, granola bars. Do we see a trend here....carb city! Yikes! I knew there was a reason that I have started going back to the gym.

Oh, and then we do have some healthy stuff going on. We're eating lots of veggies from the garden right now...edamame, green beans, tomatoes, basil, beets and carrots. It's probably worth noting that I do try to have a salad every night for dinner...speaking of which, I am so missing my Feta Cheese from Costco right now...my favorite salad topper! I sense a Costco run in the near future!

Okay, enough rambling about food. It is honestly what I think about most of the day...odd, wouldn't you say?

Our Summer

So my plan was to keep updating what we did this summer.....FAIL!!!!!

Well, we did A LOT!

Camping for 2 nights with friends, Whistler for 6 nights - just us, Long Beach for 4 nights with Josh's family, Great Wolf Lodge, blueberry picking, blackberry picking, raspberry picking, strawberry picking...what he heck...let just do'em all!, Laine had swimming lessons, played with neighborhood friends, went bowling, worked on my Mom's yard, planted and harvested a garden, went to the Fair....got sick at the Fair, JJ learned to ride his bike with no trainers, spent the Labor Day weekend with friends in Yakima - sadly no sunshine to bid farewell to the summer... and even though we were super busy, there were things that we didn't get to that I would have liked to...at least there's next year!

And, to top it all off, it was the most beautiful, warm summer and I know the kids had a fabulous time...I know I sure did!

Now, Laine has started her second week of 1st grade with the teacher she so badly wanted - Mrs. Petersen, who, curiously enough was a high school classmate of Josh's in Vancouver.
JJ starts his second year of preschool on Thursday - he'll be gone 4 afternoon's a week. What will I do with my time? Oh, I'm sure I'll find plenty to do...or maybe I'll treat myself so some "me" time.

We have a quiet month and then some activities start for the kids. Both will be doing gymnastics and JJ will do basketball. I'm sure more things will pop up unexpectedly, but for now, I'll just enjoy the slow pace of September.

Sad days at the Fair.....

Well, the fair is supposed to be a happy week.

The past couple of years we have gone, spent a ton of money of gut wrenching food, bought way too many game tokens and come away with crazy prizes that clutter up the kids' room, ogle over the pygmy goats and rabbits that we can't have, and generally have a superbly memorable time!

This year...not so much.

The anticipation was there...from taking the shuttle bus, to eating cotton candy and snow cones and going on the ferris wheel. However, this year did not go as planned. Both of our poor kids got sick. JJ on Tuesday and Laine on Thursday. They were sick from a bug, not from rides or food...just bad timing for this crazy little stomach flu to hit the Jenkins' family.

We like to get to the fair early and spend the morning looking at exhibits and then doing rides and kids stuff and then some more walking around, looking at the animals, eating throughout the day, and then usually some more rides. Laine loves to stay late - it's such a treat to see all the rides lit up as it gets darker.

So, thinking back over the past few days....I would have to say this was one of the best times we've had at the fair...huh???? I know.... how could that be? Well, we didn't feel rushed since none of us had a ton of energy to be "up" all day, so it was a nice relaxing time. The kids did a few rides - we didn't have to wait in any long lines and the weather was nice, not unbearably hot like it has been in the past. We got to view a lot of fun things that our friends entered in exhibits - it was lots of fun looking for them and seeing them win ribbons! We ate very little, so 1) we didn't spend lots of money, and 2) we didn't walk away feeling like we ate a weeks worth of food in just a couple hours. I would have liked to have had some goodies, but nothing tempted me. We saw most of the animals and it was unusually uncrowded...not good for the Fair, but good for those of us that don't like big crowds. I worked at the Lynden PTA food booth on Wednesday night, which I have to say was way more fun than I ever anticipated. And, I can't leave this without saying that I think we saw two of the best exhibits...the reptile tent and the Farm exhibit just bast the Young Life food booth - it was outstanding!

So, even though we had to cut our two days at the fair short after both kids got ill, I do have to say that it was a great time for us and it's a great way to "end" our summer! Oh, and the kids say they are definitely entering things next year, so be sure to be on the lookout for them!

Alex

So, I've had this post ready to go for a couple weeks now. For some reason I am having problems uploading pictures and definitely did not want to post this one without a picture of my bud Alex. But, every time I try to upload a picture I lose my Internet connection. No idea why....I so don't know about the technical computer stuff. I'm looking for a solution and when I find it I will definitely put up a picture of him.

We have a cat named Alex.

Alex came into our lives in the Fall of 1996. He is coming up on 13 years old and the fact that most people are surprised when they find out we have a cat has made me a tad bit remorseful lately. Sadly, he is the forgotten member of our family.

Alex is a stunningly beautiful cat. He has incredibly soft, long hair and the markings of a Siamese - dark tipped white hair with darker ears, dark tail, a dark patch on the back of his neck and the most gorgeous blue eyes ever. He is small, usually weighing in around 9 pounds. It's not uncommon for us to hear "She is a beautiful cat" from first time viewers.

And, no, the she above is not a typo - Alex is male, but his mannerisms and looks often confuse people into thinking that he is a she. His nicknames around the house are Lexi , Ally and Alice. Alex wouldn't hurt a fly....literally. He cannot catch a fly. He tries - he stalks them and jumps after them and bats them with his paw, but he is not a hunter. He has never caught a mouse, a bird, a snake, a lizard....he is not a hunter. Which, as I look back, has been a blessing. Growing up we always had cats that would proudly bring their kill back to the house and leave us the one or two pieces that they don't eat. So glad I don't have to deal with that, however, we do have a mole that lives in our flower beds that I would love to see gone!

As I was writing the above paragraph, I do recall a time when we lived in Bellingham that we caught Alex standing proudly over a dead mouse. I believe we took a picture because neither Josh nor I could believe that he actually caught it himself. We did have another cat at the time, as well as two dogs, so it is possible that they helped him out a little so kind of boost his manliness for a while. Didn't really help though, since he just sat and stared at the dead mouse at his feet for a while, not having a clue what to do with it.

So, why has Alex been the forgotten member of our family. Now, I believe he has always been overshadowed by either other animals or people. When we got him as a kitten, we had also just gotten our first Greyhound, Nick. Just a few months later we adopted our second Greyhound, Dixie. We had a cat named Cora when we got Alex, but sadly she disappeared. Later we adopted Levi from the Farmer's Market. He was another beautiful cat, but he was crazy! He was the neighborhood bully, so we were always having to take care of his issues. He also beat up on Alex a lot, so I'm sure that he was happy when Levi left. So, Alex has outlasted all of our animals. He's kind of like the unlikely winners on Survivor....sit back and do nothing until you get to the finals and then wow everyone with your personality...

And then, in 2003, Laine came along. Alex was okay with her until she started to move around. Neither Laine or JJ have ever done any of the horrible things that kids can do to cats - the tail pulling, patting, chasing...but he doesn't like to be bothered, so he made a home for himself under our bed. It was his routine for years to make his first appearance of the day when the kids were asleep. It was then that we often heard..."I didn't know you had a cat" as he sauntered out of the bedroom.

Alex still spends most of his days under our bed. He now likes to sleep with Laine, jumping up on her bed as soon as we sit down for story time. And, he even now will come up and cuddle with JJ and enjoys his attention for a limited time. He is an incredibly patient and sweet cat.

Fun Summer Plans

Okay, here it goes...my first blog post. I figure if I start with a list of fun things I want to do through the summer, it would be good to follow up with reports on those that I actually did. Kind of help me have a focus on what to write about. We'll see...

So, every year, or at least ever since the kids came along, I try to come up with fun things to do in the summer. I guess I always have in the back of my mind lots of things I want to do with them. Now it's even more important than ever since they are both getting to the age where they'll actually be creating memories of their childhood. Here's our list this year...some things are on the calendar already, some are just things we'll try to fit in when we have time.

• Long Beach vacation - Christian and Ramona's wedding in August - 5 nights in a beach house with 17 people - sounds crazy, but it will be tons of fun with all the cousins there!
• Whistler vacation - Our first time going to Whistler in the summer - 3 nights
• Camping at the Lynden KOA - never gone camping with the kids before...enough said
• The Fair - the kids ask about the fair all year long, and we'll be seeing Foreigner...
• Birch Bay Waterslides - we'll have to plan to go before August...hopefully Homestead can hold onto it until then
• Tennis Camp for both Laine and JJ - in Fairhaven, so I'll get to enjoy 2 hours browsing in one of my favorite areas
• Swim lessons for Laine, Soccer Camp for JJ
• Plover Ferry - the Ferry that goes from Blaine to Semihamoo - it's free and I have a great source that says it's the best thing ever!
• Free movies at Bellis Fair - I haven't looked into this yet, but in the past they've had some good movies - and who can pass up free? The kids love it since we rarely go to the movie theatre since it's so expensive and there's no guarantee that they will sit through the whole thing
• Kids Bowl Free at Mt Baker Lanes - there's bound to be a few rainy days this summer, right?
• Tending the garden - first year for the garden and hopefully the kids will enjoy the veggies
• JJ's Birthday - you have to have a party for a 4th of July baby!
• Stanley Park/Vancouver Aquarium - we haven't taken the kids there, but that is a place my parents took me when I was little, so it's kind of a nostalgic place for me...although, I'm sure it's changed a bit in the last 25 years!
• Vancouver Zoo - it's so close and when you buy the year pass from The Woodland Park Zoo you can't go wrong
• Mariner Game
• All the great parks in Whatcom County - Berthusen, Hovander, Lake Padden, Whatcom Falls, Big Rock Garden, Larrabee, Bloedel, Lynden City Park, Fairhaven Park, Semihamoo Spit....the list goes on and on - we are so lucky to have all these wonderful places!
• Make homemade ice cream - yummy!
• Hang out with friends and family - always a good time!
• Lynden Pioneer Museum - this was Laine's choice when I asked her what she wanted to do this summer - we've been there once about a year ago, and it is worth the visit - lots of old time stuff to browse through

As usual, it's quite a list and I have to make sure we do have some down time as well. We'll be busy, but I'd rather have it that way than doing nothing. Of course, we have to leave time to take care of our house and yard. I'm so looking forward to a wonderful summer! I think the recent beautiful weather we've had has helped with that - I just heard it's been 22 days with no rain here. If only it could stay like this for the next three months. Well, a little rain here and there is not a bad thing, just not the whole summer, please!